Future Olympians Discuss Values With Former Military Personnel

The majority of the USA’s winter Olympic team is meeting this weekend for a rookie training camp in Park City to learn about resilience from a former member of the military.

Jen Housholder said she is not really a skier or a snowboarder, but she is helping to mentor these athletes-in-training about core values through the Military Mentorship Program.

“It provides the common ground," she said. "If you don’t have a common ground for the team, you don’t have a foundation for the team to start. We all come from different foundations and we have to agree on those basic core values, otherwise you just don’t have the glue to hold you all together.”

Luke Bodensteiner is the Vice President of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, which is hosting the event. He believes military ideals are very similar to those he wants the U.S.A. team to have.

“There are a lot of parallels between a military service personnel and our elite team athletes in terms of culture, values, representation of their nation on a world wide scale,” he said.